Comfort
by CrystalMaiden77
Summary: Why wasn't Antoine surprised that Sonic was still alive when Sonic rescued him from Anti-Mobius? This is why.


The days seemed to crawl by for Antoine in the time he was disguised as Patch. Every one was the same, fighting a new group of criminals from various rival gangs in Scourge's city with a chain and his fists, relying on the rest of his new group of " friends " to back him up and protect him. Most of the time, he kept up the act well, by expressing his frustration with an annoyed look or having a serious expression, but every so often he couldn't keep it all inside any longer. Normally, he let it out by crying into his pillow with the door closed, but this time, he felt like going to a lake for some extra privacy, and more importantly, to try to feel better by surrounding himself with the green grass of nature instead of always being in the middle of the city.

Eventually he was startled into yelping when a roaring wind suddenly happened behind him and a blue and black blur stopped in front of him. It was Scourge, of course, and Antoine immediately tried to frantically wipe away his tears as fast as possible, hiding his eyes with his hands as he sat on the grass facing away from him. After a brief awkward silence, Scourge said unhappily, " About time I found ya, I was runnin' all over the place. Now what do I gotta do to get ya to stop cryin'? "

This was the annoying part of being caught; instead of Scourge just making fun of him for it and taunting him, he actually felt sorry for him, and it always left Antoine with mixed feelings, because on the one hand, he wanted to be nothing but thankful and relieved that even the evil twin of Sonic could feel sorry for him and want to make him feel better. But at the same time, he didn't want to feel any sympathy and respect for the one who forced him to live on that planet in the first place, so he always fought against it, being made uneasy by the very idea of warming up to him. It wasn't as if he didn't appreciate getting to take advantage of him, he'd lost count of all the French restaurant meals he got paid for him, but being caught like that was always something he couldn't stand.

" Why do you care? " Antoine whispered quietly, trying to talk without his voice breaking as he wished his face would be dry already. " Because it's depressing! Now you didn't answer my question. Do ya want some more escargot? " Scourge said, and briefly put his hand on his shoulder. Antoine moved to get it away from him, making Scourge frustrated and wish he didn't even bother, and said, " I've had plenty of escargot, I just wanna go home! "

Scourge walked a few extra steps so he was beside him and said in annoyance, " We've been OVER this, 'Twan, I need you here. And if I replaced you with another Antoine, he'd be totally inexperienced and not remember any of what you do, so it'd be even more suspicious! It'd be totally different if Patch was nothing but nice to me, but he can't be trusted. He threw a knife at me once! You'd get rid of him the same way if you could! " Antoine wished that Scourge wasn't right with that last sentence, and hoped he wasn't getting himself in serious trouble from talking back to him like that, but fought through the fear because every time he'd done so with him, he didn't even so much as give him a slap on the wrist. He complained ignoring the slight breaking of his voice, " I KNOW what your excuses are! But I still miss them! I don't belong here! "

Scourge's face fell from the last sentence reminding him of Miles, and he sat beside him and said reassuringly, " Of course you do, you do great! You're nicer to me than even Miles at this point! You're the… you're the best friend I've ever had, whether you like to hear it or NOT. I really should have good friends who do like me, but sadly, these guys are jerks. And Miles has issues, that's all. " Antoine complained while wiping away the next of his tears, " But I'm being a horrible person! "

Scourge replied, " What are you TALKING about? You're beatin' up criminals! That's all! Okay, so you steal sometimes, but so what? I'm sure you find ways to pay people afterwards behind our backs anyways. " Antoine looked surprised and said, " You knew?! " Scourge said, " No, I guessed. You're not good at this yet, are you? Besides, you spend too much time with Miles. But that's not the point. Do you know where those beaten up thugs go after we're done with 'em? " Antoine asked, " To the hospital? " cringing because he helped with that.

Scourge answered, " A prison hospital. Yeah, as much as I hate prisons, that's where they all go. We're Princess Alicia's ' soldiers, ' and that's our job. But there's no reason we can't have some fun with it as we go! You're doing the right thing!... N-Not like I care about that. " Antoine sighed heavily, letting the tears fall at that point because it was pointless, and said, " Not as much as I could be back home. Who knows what my evil twin could be doing over there?! Who knows how many thefts he's committed, or how many people he's killed?! It keeps me up at night! It gives me nightmares! " and promptly felt embarrassed about admitting the last sentence.

Scourge said with a dismissive wave of his hand, " He was probably put in prison the day he was sent there! Which means things are fine. He never really caused too much damage, just beat up thugs and stole stuff. " Antoine said in frustration, " You don't understand! He could've had all of my loved ones killed by now and you don't even care! "

Scourge said in surprise, " Whoa, hold on there, jumping to conclusions much? Again, he doesn't go THAT far. He only goes after people who really provoke him. And for some reason, me. 'Cause he got jealous that I took down Sally's corrupt dad and not him. And he just can't get over that! Do ya think he'd be jealous of you? He's proud of his lifestyle! He said so! " Antoine replied while hating that he didn't seem to get his point, " But he's my enemy! He'd hate the Freedom Fighters! Why wouldn't he have done that if he could?! You don't understand what it's like to be so worried about people you love! " Scourge looked sad and worried because it immediately reminded him of Miles, and how much the kid worried him with the way he was affected by the bullying of his past, unable to trust easily and traumatized far more than he was willing to talk about. It didn't change the fact that Antoine's panicking was annoying him, but at the same time, he was reminding him of Miles when he got like that.

Antoine exclaimed, " They could be dead right now, or maybe they're about to be! I don't know! " Scourge finally got sick of it and exclaimed, " They're not! Look, I'll show ya! " He then put his arm around his back startling him unintentionally from the contact while saying, " And nice try, but you're not runnin' through the portal on my watch. I'm not stupid! I just didn't see the point of school. " As Antoine felt torn between disappointment, appreciation at the compassion and affection of his warm arm around his back in a friendly gesture and complete aversion to the very idea, wondering if he'd be a traitor to his friends if he allowed himself to smile at it, Scourge pulled the zone-link generator he borrowed from Boomer out of a pocket in his black leather jacket, and pressed a few buttons on it.

A yellow circular light appeared in front of them and showed them the Freedom Fighters alive and well. Fortunately for Antoine, Patch happened to be nowhere in sight, being in the washroom at the time, but the most surprising thing of all was that Sonic was there. " SONIC?! He's alive! T-They're all alive, but, how?! " Antoine exclaimed, and Scourge quickly turned off the portal generator and put it back in his jacket.

They both stood up, and Scourge said in confusion, " Why are you so surprised that Sonic survived? He can move at the speed of sound and slice apart anything he wants with his spines! Of course Patch didn't kill him. He didn't kill any of them, he's probably in prison right now! " smiling by the end proud of himself for successfully proving his point, and making Antoine stop depressing him because now he was grinning ear to ear.

" THANK YOU! " Antoine exclaimed, and hugged him impulsively. Scourge was surprised, but smiled and instinctively hugged back after half a second as he always did with Miles, and as Antoine realized what he just did, Scourge said, " No problem! I, guess the hug wasn't really for me, though, was it? " He let go so Antoine could pull back, and Antoine felt embarrassed and cleared his throat fidgeting awkwardly, before sighing, feeling that he owed him an explanation.

" It kind of was? Thank you for showing me this! It's such a relief! But I did really want to hug Sonic, though that would be a first. The last time I saw Sonic was when he sacrificed himself to save the world! He ran into a machine just as it exploded! " Scourge looked shocked and confused. " You see, there were a bunch of aliens who call themselves the Xorda, and they wanted to use a black hole generator to destroy it in vengeance for one of their ambassadors being dissected a thousand years ago, " Antoine explained. Scourge remarked, " A thousand years ago? Wow, they're petty. Who cares about one guy from that long ago? I guess that guy was the bestest person ever. "

Antoine felt a little stupid for even bothering to tell Scourge about the Xorda and felt like he was letting his guard down and opening up to him again, and said in annoyance, " I wonder if I should've even told you that. It's none of your business, you wouldn't care. How do you feel knowing that your twin was compassionate enough to sacrifice his life to save billions of people?! Would you have done the same thing? " wanting to know his reaction to it.

Scourge replied while awkward about what it might imply about him, " Well, I think if he hadn't done it, he would've been screwed ANYWAYS, so he might as WELL have tried SOMETHING. I'm assuming he didn't have a way to just warp to another zone, so yeah. I mean, if your world's screwed, you might as well do the last thing you'll ever do and hope that you'll make it because of it, and obviously he DID, so. Yeah. Do the math, wise guy. I wouldn't wanna be blown up with the rest of my planet, either! That doesn't mean anything, because anyone else would've done the same thing, 'cause they'd be desperate and wanna live. That's all. " As Antoine couldn't help but smile proud of him, Scourge awkwardly changed the subject looking away, " Man, aliens huh? You guys sure had a lot of interesting stuff happen. My planet NEVER gets that amount of excitement! I don't even know if we have Xorda! "

" Well apparently they created Mobians from dropping gene bombs in a revenge plot, so every zone has to have them, and that same little bit of history. You're lucky they haven't come over here by now. But never mind, let's just go home… " Antoine said, before remembering who he was talking to and being frustrated that he let himself open up to him again. Scourge looked surprised at that interesting tidbit, feeling like it contradicted something people always assumed about how life started, before shrugging it off because it didn't matter to his day-to-day life anyways. Instead, he said, " My home or your home? " teasing him.

Antoine answered, " Uh, your home, " embarrassed again, and Scourge said with a smile, " See, I told ya you could get used to it! You got a roof over your head, a whole gang of people who you can rely on for protection, and if you ever get hurt or sick, Miles will take care of ya! You'd lose all of that if you had to live out on the streets. You're lucky, really. " Antoine listened to him at first reluctantly knowing that he was right, and looked annoyed at being told he was lucky. He always hated how Scourge kept insisting he was lucky he did that to him and he was giving him a vacation, even if it was true in some sense, because it wasn't a vacation from his morality, and from his attachment to his friends. He missed Bunnie more than any of them, and Buns was no substitute.

Scourge added, " And what's with this ' never mind? ' We had a conversation going for a second there, and I'd say that's a hell of a lot better than just arguing over the same thing over and over again for months. Talk about that stuff more! You were a Freedom Fighter, you got a TON of interesting stories to tell! " Antoine complained resentfully, " Why, so you'll use them against my friends? So you'll try to find out their weaknesses or taunt them? I shouldn't be just giving out all that information to their enemy! No matter how starved I am of a proper conversation! Not like Miles isn't good enough for me, that's not what I'm saying. I just, I don't trust you! And they'd never forgive me. "

Scourge reassured him dismissively, " They'd never know! And who cares? It's not gonna hurt them. It wouldn't MATTER! I'm just curious, that's all. You got a whole other universe of stories, a totally different perspective, side of things! You guys probably did a lot more than just the same two things over and over again. I used to assume it was just smashing Swatbots and that's it, but apparently there's a lot more than that, and it could be fun to talk about. Like a book, but interesting because it's a conversation. Seriously, you need to let it OUT every once and a while. Miles doesn't know who you are, so you can't talk about this stuff with HIM. Who other than me are you gonna talk to and feel like yourself again? Sure, the kid's a softie at heart, and you have that in common. But he'd hate moral lectures as much as I do. It's me or nobody. But I guess it's up to you. After all, if I tried to force you to tell me, it wouldn't exactly endear you to me, and there wouldn't be much of a point. Now come on, let's go home, "

He then lifted Antoine into his arms which always surprised him, and Antoine held on tight as Scourge started running at sonic speed to get home, starting at a normal running pace and accelerating more and more over time as the wind roared around them, and naturally Antoine had his eyes shut the whole time, clutching onto his shoulders with his only comfort and consolation being that he was close to one of his most hated enemies. He was warm and his chest was soft, even if his jacket felt rough, and he hated that he was feeling comforted by it at all because he didn't want to warm up to the one who trapped him on that planet in the first place, no matter how much he was trying to get him to. He didn't have to do that at all. He didn't have to carry him home or try to get him to cheer up and feel better. He could've just bullied him nonstop and left him traumatized if he wasn't already. And he had done nothing but complain to repay him.

Eventually he sighed from the guilt and admitted, " I, I really appreciate how, how much you've gone out of your way to, cheer me up and, make things easier on me. T-Thanks. I should be saying this more often, but you're not a, Freedom Fighter, so it's hard… " picking his words very carefully because he thought Scourge would just be awkward and offended at being called nice. Whenever he was nice, he tried to run away from it because that wasn't the side of him that most people appreciated or respected. It was his evil side that got him what he wanted from people; money, possessions, and them not complaining about or insulting him to his face every second. Scourge smiled, and said, " It couldn't have been easy to say that. I gotta appreciate the effort! Thanks. But let's not tell anybody we have these ' heartfelt ' moments together, even if they're not a bad thing. Got it? "

Antoine said, " I understand, " and couldn't help but smile, finding his behavior heartwarming and wishing that it was Sonic he was talking to, because he reminded him so much of him right now, and it was thanks to him that he knew he was still alive. It was thanks to him that he wasn't surprised that Sonic was alive when he finally got to see him again.


End file.
